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Fantastic Four Vol 1 358
** ** ** ** Supporting Characters: * * Antagonists: * * * ** ** Other Characters: * * * * * Races and Species: * * * Locations: * ** *** **** ***** ****** ****** ****** ***** ****** **** ***** **** *** **** * ** Items: * Vehicles: * | StoryTitle2 = The Official Story | Writer2_1 = Tom DeFalco | Penciler2_1 = Arthur Adams | Inker2_1 = Arthur Adams | Colourist2_1 = Marie Javins | Colourist2_2 = Renee Witterstaetter | Letterer2_1 = Steve Dutro | Editor2_1 = | Synopsis2 = Deep in the bowls of Doctor Doom's castle, a lone man goes over video footage of Doctor Doom's triumphant return to Latveria where he reclaimed the throne from his ward Kristoff Vernard. As he begins to alter the audio in order or make Doctor Doom be projected in a better light, this man is discovered by Hoskous, the curator of the Latverian Bureau of Antiquities. Asking who this strange masked man is, he introduces himself merely as the Editor. Having been charged to manifest Doom's possessions within the castle, Hoskous checks his records and finds no record of this room, its video editing facilities, or any mention of the Editor. The Editor is hardly surprised, telling Houskus that he exists to go over the recorded history of Latveria and alter any and all records that pain Doctor Doom in a bad light, a means of keeping his public image spotless and his people loyal by discounting and deflecting Doom's repeat failures on other plausible reasons. He explains that in a lot of cases he makes Doom failures appear to be the work of malfunctioning Doombots. To illustrate this point, the Editor takes Hoskous upstairs where he trips a Doombot carrying a birthday cake. Suddenly, Houskus realizes that the Editor has been leading him to the Attitude Adjustment Center, where he is suddenly grabbed by two robots with instructions to kill anyone who discovers the Editor or his work. With his appointed task done for the time being, the Editor reports to Doctor Doom to inform him that the latest records have been altered and that history is now "up to date" for the moment, much to the pleasure of Doom. | Appearing2 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Other Characters: * * Hoskous Races and Species: * Locations: * ** *** Items: * | StoryTitle3 = Bonus Material | Synopsis3 = This issue also contains various bonus material in celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Fantastic Four. Including material written by Stan Lee about creating the Fantastic Four with Jack Kirby, which includes a reproduction of the original pitch Stan and Jack wrote about the Fantastic Four. There are pin-ups of Blastaar, Annihilus (by Mike Mignola), Molecule Man (by Ron Garney and Dan Green), Rama-Tut (by Paul Ryan and Bud LaRosa), and Doctor Doom (by Ron Frenz and Joe Sinnott). Also there are two page spreads explaining the powers of each member of the Fantastic Four written by Tom DeFalco and penciled by Paul Ryan, as well as a schematic of the Four Freedoms Plaza. An essay on the history of the Fantastic Four written by Peter Sanderson Lastly a series of "Marvel Milestone" pin-ups that look back at the birth of the Fantastic Four ( ), the first time the FF met the Watcher ( ), their first battle with Galactus ( - ), their first clash with the Inhumans ( - ), and lastly the wedding of Reed and Sue ( ). | Notes = Continuity Notes Whatever Happened to Alicia? * The Skrulls state that creating a new Super-Skrull is cost prohibitive. At the time of this story the Skrulls had only publicly revealed on successful Super-Skrull, Kl'rt who gained the powers of the Fantastic Four through technological means in . However as revealed, the Skrulls have secretly been trying to find a way to replicate super-human powers without the use of technology. * During Lyja's exposition she goes over some significant portions of Fantastic Four history. These are as follows: ** She references Ben's relationship with Alicia Masters, the pair began dating back in . ** Reference to Reed, Johnny and Ben being kidnapped by the Beyonder occurred in . They were on Battleworld between - . While on Battleworld, Ben discovered that he could change back and forth between his human and Thing forms and decided to stay. ** Lyja taking Alicia's place happened just prior to the heroes return from the Secret Wars. Johnny, Reed and She-Hulk's return to Earth was depicted in . ** Johnny and "Alicia's" relationship began to grow from onward. ** The scene where Ben discovered Johnny and "Alicia's" relationship is from . Ben left Battleworld in . ** Lastly Lyja recounts her marriage to Johnny which occurred in . ** Per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616, Lyja was posing as Alicia for roughly two years time. was published in 1984, which falls under "Year 6" of the Modern Age and this story, published in 1991 falls under "Year 8". 8 - 6 = 2. * This story begins a long and complex series of romantic struggles between Lyja and Johnny. Although she states that she is pregnant with Johnny's child in this story and later states she was lying when she apparently dies here. Lyja appears alive and well again in and still claiming to be carrying Johnny's child. She even gives birth to an egg that she claims is Johnny's child in . It is later revealed to be a Gha'Barri implanted in her by Paibok to destroy the Fantastic Four as explained in . * Reed recounts the origins of the Fantastic Four. This is the fourth time the story has been revised and modernized. As Marvel has continued to publish stories eventually they had to institute a Sliding Timescale as a means of slowing down the advance of time in the Marvel Universe over the length of publications in real time. This was to prevent ageing their characters quickly as well as updating dated plot concepts, generalizing real life events or dates that are mentioned in various stories. When Fantastic Four #1 was published in 1961, Reed's spaceship is specifically referred to as a rocket, and his intentions for his mission is to beat the Soviet Union in the space race. Contextually, the story was published during the height of the US/Soviet Space Race, which saw both countries competing to see which one could develop manned space flights. Since then, many retellings of the Fantastic Four's origin have changed the details of Reed Richard's space flight, updating concepts so that they were not considered dated more modern readers. Such as: ** While Fantastic Four #1 implies that Reed was trying to reach the moon, states that he was attempting to reach Mars. Other stories since then have generalized where his destination was supposed to be. ** goes on to state that it was not just cosmic rays that caused the Fantastic Four to get their powers. It states that sunspot activity caused flaring through the Van Allen Belts causing an increase in neutron activity. The combination of this and the cosmic rays caused the mutations. **In , the origin of the Fantastic Four was updated, it was stated that Reed's experimental ship was intended to travel to the edge of the solar system and while it needed a rocket booster to reach escape velocity from Earth's atmosphere it relied on a Star Drive to reach its destination. This tale also goes on to expand on how the quartet were mutated. ** states that Reed the ship needed to be tested before NASA gave approval for its use. ** This version of the story it is stated "Star Drive" was intended to bring them into hyperspace in order to visit other solar systems. It also states that a combination of cosmic rays and abnormal sunspot activity was what caused the Fantastic Four to mutate. * In the flashback to the origin of the Fantastic Four, the Thing is depicted here with dinosaur-like skin, he maintains this appearance until he eventually he developed his trademark rocky appearance by . went on to explain that the Thing's form continued to mutate after his initial transformation. * King Cobra makes his appearance here between and . * Following his appearance here, the Mad Thinker next appears in . * Following his appearance here the Puppet Master is next seen in . * Lyja is wearing Sue's original costume which she war between - when a trip into the Negative Zone caused the Fantastic Four's uniforms to invert. * This story shows Ben wearing a full body suit instead of his tradmark trunks. The last time Ben was dressed head to toe in a costume was in - . * Alicia Masters appears here after her last appearance in . * Although both Lyja and Paibok appear to die here, they resurface alive and well in . How they managed to escape the exploding War World unscathed is revealed in . The Official Story * This story explains Doctor Doom's claims made in wherein he stated that he had not fought the Fantastic Four since the "Battle of the Baxter Building" circa - and that every time he after that the Fantastic Four were fighting Doombots. It states that this was all part of propaganda to make Doctor Doom appear to be a flawless leader in the eyes of his people. * Doctor Doom appears here between and . | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = }} References